Right to Work Practicum Gives Students Unique Ability to Help Shape the Law

Students participating in Regent Law’s Right to Work practicum will have the exciting opportunity to aid in the litigation of Locke v. Karass, a critical case currently pending before the United States Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court recently agreed to review this case on its merits. Locke v. Karass concerns compulsory unionism and the 1st Amendment rights of employees.

By aiding in litigation, Regent students have the opportunity to get an up-close view of the mechanisms of the Supreme Court and to literally make history.

The Right to Work practicum was established as a cooperative effort between the law school, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW), and Bruce Cameron, the Reed Larson Professor of Labor Law at Regent. Before coming to Regent Law in the fall of 2007, Professor Cameron worked for over thirty years on behalf of employees in more than 30 states as part of the litigation staff at NRTW. It is his continued association with the NRTW that gives students the unique ability to help shape the law.

Not even two semesters into the Right to Work practicum, students have been able to digest depositions, research complex policies, and provide vital input for cases that have great impact on the nation’s labor laws.

Second year student Crystal Losey said, “I came to Regent to prepare to fight for religious liberty but did not foresee the everyday value of ensuring that freedom in the workplace until participating the Right to Work practicum.” Through the practicum, Losey has researched and drafted stipulations that will be used in an upcoming labor case in Tennessee. This case, arising under the state constitution, will determine the right of union members to control the use of their dues. At present, public employees in the state are forced to allow their union dues to be used to promote religious, political, and ideological activities they find objectionable as the price for having a voice and a vote in their employment conditions.